The set is a "Limited Collector's Edition" of 1,500
copies and was available only through the label's site for $130 each
before selling out. Copies continued to be available from online
soundtrack specialty outlets and online auction houses at prices
ranging from $250 to $300. By 2012, its value had diminished to $200.
Catalog number: VCL 0204 1028

AWARDS

Several Academy Award nominations (and Goldsmith's one Oscar win) are represented on this album.

Buy it... only if you are an extremely avid collector of Jerry
Goldsmith's music and seek this expensive set for sentimental reasons
rather than practical ones.

Avoid it... if the huge financial sacrifice you'll make to acquire
a rare copy is not worth the minimal quantity of music that has remained
unreleased on other products in the years since this set debuted.

EDITORIAL REVIEW

FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #720

WRITTEN
4/10/04, REVISED 10/13/11

BUY IT

Goldsmith

Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox: (Jerry
Goldsmith) In one of the most comprehensive compilations ever to be
released in the genre of film music, the Varèse Sarabande label
built a 6-CD set based on the vast collection of material written by
composer Jerry Goldsmith for films of the studio 20th Century Fox.
According to Varèse, the 2004 set was meant to kick off a
year-long celebration of Goldsmith's 75th birthday by the label (which
had already announced in late 2003 that they would be releasing an SACD
of Goldsmith's rejected Timeline score), though the composer
passed away just a few months thereafter. Before diving into the debate
about the concept of the 6-CD set itself, as well as the circumstances
of its release, a summary of its contents may help you decide if it is
worth the enormous expense. The set does not include all of Goldsmith's
work for Fox; among the six exclusions are Capricorn One and
Sleeping with the Enemy, both extremely unfortunate omissions,
but it does offer at least one cue (and often many more) from
Goldsmith's 39 other projects for Fox. For a comprehensive track
listing, browse further down this page. All of the material on the first
three albums has been released before, with the first album showcasing
Goldsmith's war and action music, the second album containing Westerns,
and the third album limited to suspense and horror. A considerable
amount of the material on the first two albums had been recently
released by Film Score Monthly in its limited Silver Age series of CDs.
The third album contains a strong collection from the franchise of
The Omen, however. The three latter CDs are the ones that will
likely interest the collector of more obscure Goldsmith music. Among the
more notable first-time releases are cues from Von Ryan's
Express, Fate is the Hunter, The Agony and the Ecstasy
(the original recording), and Alien, from which the original main
titles and a medley of unreleased cues was offered for the first time.
While most had never been heard even on commercial LP albums, The
Chairman was making the transition for the first time. Although many
of these scores had long been bootlegged, a few of them (such as Fate
is the Hunter) were truly new to the ears of even the most avid
Goldsmith collectors. More modern collectors appreciated The
Vanishing as the only new inclusion from the digital era, though
Varèse released that score in full as another of their Club
entries not long after. In sum, there were 79 previously unreleased
tracks between those final three CDs at the time of the set's
debut.

As a workable product, this Varèse set was
completely different from any other, though it did inspire similar sets
from FSM in coming years. When it originally sold from the label's web
site, it cost nearly $140 (including shipping). It sold out within two
weeks, and on the secondary market, its value immediately escalated past
$200 and fetched prices upwards of $300 by the end of the 2000's. But is
it really worth that much? There is a distinct reason why only 1,500 of
these sets were produced; the market aim for it was very, very narrow.
Even within the film music collecting crowd, only a few of the most avid
Goldsmith enthusiasts will likely have the money or need to seek this
set. As a visual and aural product, it is unquestionably outstanding.
The 64-page booklet maintains the label's highest standards of their
other Club releases and the sound quality has been mastered with great
attention to detail on the older material (and even a more recent entry
like The Vanishing). Everything about this product is
spectacular, and it's no wonder that speculators bought multiple copies
and left them sealed as an investment. The endeavor is very obviously a
labor of love for executive producer Robert Townson and everyone at
Varèse. A spirited debate ensued, however, about the viability of
the set. If someone only wanted Fate is the Hunter and nothing
else, then that person would pay extraordinary sums for just four cues
from that one score. The same applied to the 14 minutes from
Alien. Frankly, those collectors were simply screwed since the
product was meant to be a complete package. Additionally, the set sold
out so quickly (and thus marked up astronomically) that there was no
chance for reviews of the product before the sell-out date. It was
announced on the 10th of February, sold out by the end of that month,
and shipped in late March, leaving the less Internet-capable collectors,
or those who wanted to read reviews about it, with only very expensive
reseller options. A logical argument at the time stated that the desired
music would have been much more attainable by avid but less wealthy
Goldsmith collectors had it been offered in three limited 2-CD sets for
$44.99 each (or perhaps some other arrangement). As it was, too many of
the sets sat unopened with people who bought several of them as
investments. There are those, of course, who think that spending $150 on
any set of CDs is absurd, and to an extent, those people have a good
argument. At what point does a tribute simply lose all of its
practicality? If you already have most, if not all of the Goldsmith
music you want, then there's really no point in trying to locate a copy
of this set. Many of the new attractions it contained in 2004 have been
released in full since. Only if you love and value Goldsmith's career as
much as the folks at Varèse do, however, should you consider
acquiring it so many years later. ***@Amazon.com: CD or
Download

Bias Check:

For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.28
(in 113 reviews)and the average viewer rating is 3.3
(in 142,410 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

The set contains even more than the usual standard of excellent,
in-depth analysis of the scores and films seen in the label's "Club"
releases. The 64-page booklet has insights about each score, an overview of
Goldsmith's career, several photos of the composer, and elegant package
art and design by Matthew Joseph Peak.